Kraken spot command cheat sheet

Autoview · Guide

This page lists every Kraken spot order you can place from an Autoview alert, with a copy-ready command for each one. It assumes you already know the shape of an Autoview command. If you don't, read the command reference first, then come back here for the Kraken specifics: the pair symbols, the order types it accepts, and the one habit futures traders need to drop when they trade spot.

Every command below was sent to live Kraken before it went on this page, either at the minimum order size or at a price that could not fill, then cancelled. The behavior you read here is the behavior the exchange returned. Nothing is hand-typed or assumed.

Spot trading on Kraken

This page covers spot, where you buy and hold the coin itself: you own a balance and you sell it when you want out, so there is nothing to "close" in the futures sense. That one fact changes how you exit a trade, which is the last section on this page and the part worth reading twice.

Kraken also trades on margin through Autoview, with leverage, real positions, take-profit and stop orders, and a settle command. This cheat sheet leaves that out to stay short. When you want the margin surface, the Kraken command reference documents every parameter.

Name the pair

s= is the pair. Kraken writes Bitcoin as XBT, an older ticker it has used for years, so Bitcoin against the US dollar is s=XBTUSD, not BTCUSD. Ether in dollars is s=ETHUSD. The pair is the two assets joined together with no separator. Autoview passes the pair through exactly as you type it, so use Kraken's spelling, and a pair Kraken does not list is rejected by the exchange, not by us.

Route to Kraken

e=KRAKEN sends the order to your connected Kraken account. Every example below starts with it.

The order types

Pick a row, copy the command, change the pair and size to yours. t= sets the order type and defaults to limit, so a market order sets it explicitly.

A note on the price parameter: fp= is the fixed limit price, the price a limit order rests at. The f in front means a fixed, absolute number. A market order does not take a price, so leave fp= off when t=market.

t=post is a post-only limit. It rests on the book as a maker order and is rejected rather than filled if it would cross the spread and take liquidity, which is how you keep the maker fee.

Size in coins

q= is the quantity, and on a spot pair it is an amount of the coin, not a number of contracts.

• q=0.001 on XBTUSD buys or sells 0.001 of Bitcoin.
• q=50% uses half your available balance, sized at fill time.

Kraken also sets a minimum order size for each pair. On XBTUSD the minimum is 0.00005 of Bitcoin, and an order below it is rejected before it reaches the book. Other pairs carry their own minimum, so check the pair if a small order comes back refused.

Closing out: sell, do not "close"

This is where spot differs from futures, and where a futures habit will quietly do nothing. To flatten a margin position you would use c=position. A spot holding is not a position, so on spot that is not your exit:

• c=position acts on a margin position, not a spot balance. Run it against a spot holding and there is no position to find, so it reports "no positions found" and leaves your coins where they are.
• c=all is not available on Kraken.

To get out of a spot trade, place a sell for the amount you hold:

e=KRAKEN s=XBTUSD b=sell t=market q=0.001

That is the exit. If you have a resting limit order you want to call off, c=order cancels working orders on the pair without selling anything:

e=KRAKEN s=XBTUSD c=order

Test before you go live

Append d=1 to any command and Autoview parses it, reports what it would have done, and places nothing:

e=KRAKEN s=XBTUSD b=buy t=market q=0.001 d=1

That is the safest first run for a command you've just written. Read the log, confirm the pair, side, and size are what you meant, then drop d=1 and let it fill. For more on reading the log and dry-running, see test and debug your setup.

Connect Kraken